Posts from — May 2008

Camille Claudel showed artistic promise at a young age, and she seemed to have the support of her family members, who served as assistants and models for her when she was a child. When she was about fifteen, Camille met the sculptor Alfred Boucher, who recognized her talent and urged her family to have her educated in Paris. Though her father’s job transferred him to another town, he must have thought enough of Camille’s talent himself to consider Boucher’s advice important, because he set up his family in Paris, where Camille was able to pursue her art lessons. At seventeen, Camille was studying at the Académie Colarossi, a private school that allowed female students, and Alfred Boucher introduced her to the director of the École des Beaux Arts. Also about this time Camille shared a private studio with some fellow art students, and Boucher enlisted Auguste Rodin to supervise these students while he traveled to Italy to receive an award.

Camille soon became Auguste Rodin’s model, his assistant, and his lover. Before long, whatever talent she had before meeting Rodin seemed to have been forgotten by so many, and it seemed that her talent was subsumed by his. Many believed she was Rodin’s protégé in every way, but I don’t think a man of Rodin’s reputation, both as an artist and as a “ladies’ man,” would have been involved with Camille for such a long period of time if he had not recognized and been inspired by her artistic genius, as well as that indefinable quality that being with her brought to his own work. Their relationship seemed to be symbiotic in many ways, and it was often through Rodin and his connections that Camille gained her early recognition and commissions. This must have been both gratifying and supremely frustrating for someone of Camille’s talent and emotional temperament. While Rodin’s fame grew, inspired by Camille, Camille herself lived in Rodin’s shadow, seen primarily as his collaborator and his muse. Perhaps it was inevitable that her work was rarely recognized for its own merits, even when it won awards at exhibitions, because she was so closely involved with Rodin and because their individual works so often reflected similar themes. 

Camille attempted to distance herself from Rodin’s artistic influence in order to develop a more personally recognizable style, and she was influenced by Japanese motifs that became popular during this time. Although she received many commissions, such as the one for Clotho, and she earned the support of gallery owners and sponsors such as Eugène Blot and Maurice Fenaille, ultimately her psyche seems to have been too bound up in her attachment to Rodin, because she writes to Fenaille of her regret that after fifteen years of hard work, she feels she is no further along in her artistic vision than she was when she began her career.

No matter what she did she couldn’t fully extricate herself from her relationship with Rodin. Camille became more and more emotionally unbalanced, doomed to failure even in her own personal and internal artistic competition with her former lover. Ultimately Camille was institutionalized in an asylum, where Rodin sent money to help support her. Whether he did this out of guilt or out of his own brand of love is not known, but Camille was never able to truly establish her own identity, either as an artist or as a person, separate from that of Auguste Rodin.

Rodin is perhaps best known for his sculpture The Thinker, which I feel could also serve as the theme describing his artistic style, while Camille’s sculptures exude raw and unabashed emotion like few others of this time period. She could easily be called “The Feeler,” and as an artist I feel she was ahead of her time with her classic realism blended with the depth of emotion.

From the pictures I’ve seen of her sculptures, I’m hard pressed to choose a favorite, but I can narrow it down to two: L’Age mûr and La Valse. Both capture the intensity of Camille’s emotions in different ways.

L’Age mûr is painful to look at because of its desperation, not only because it portrays a naked and vulnerable woman abandoned by her lover, but also because it provides a glimpse into the mind and heart of an artist abandoned to the criticism and scorn of the art world of her time, a world that could not recognize her worth separate from Rodin. The fact that one piece of this sculpture, the begging naked woman-L’Implorante-was often featured separately seems to attest to the intensity of the separation and sense of incompleteness that ultimately robbed Camille of her sanity.

La Valse, on the other hand, portrays to me the message of the Biblical “one flesh” relationship of love, the dance of twin souls, because it’s difficult to tell where one figure begins and the other ends in this graceful vortex of emotion. This piece also reminds me of the myth of Pygmalion-the creator and his beloved creation, the two inseparable as the woman’s perfect and graceful body rises from unformed clay.  Both concepts provide the perfect metaphor for Camille Claudel’s stormy and complicated relationship with Auguste Rodin, and they also remind us of the risk there is in giving so much power over our souls and our self worth to another human being.

Photo: L’Age Mur, Camille Claudel (1902)
Bronze. Musée d’Orsay, Paris 
Photo by William Allen - http://www.clt.astate.edu/wallen/digits/

I met Mike Dellosso through Writer . . . Interrupted, a social networking community of Christian writers whose mission is to offer support to fellow “parents, spouses, caregivers, and employees whose writing is interrupted by daily tasks.” Mike is certainly experiencing an interruption in his life right now, having been diagnosed with cancer two months before the release of his debut novel,The Hunted, a supernatural suspense set for release June 3. He’s had surgery, and now he’s going through a regimen of chemo. A few people at Writer . . . Interrupted banded together to help Mike promote his first book since Mike’s energy needs to be focused on getting better! So, we’ll get started, but stay tuned at the end of the interview for details on other blog tour hosts who will be talking to Mike, and learn how you can sign up for Mike’s newsletter and a chance to win an autographed cover flat of The Hunted.

Mike, I really want to thank you for this interview. Tell everyone a little bit about yourself.

I’ve been a physical therapist assistant for 10 years, and I’ve been married to my lovely and supportive wife, Jen, for 10 years. We’ve been blessed with three daughters ages 5, 6, and 8. All fun-loving, sweet-spirited, and of course always well-behaved (ahem).

Yes, I have a daughter, soon to be 21, but I do know she was always sweet spirited and well behaved. I’m sure a full-time job and a family life with three young ones has kept you on your toes juggling your writing time. But family is a positive and wonderful ”interruption.” Cancer is not. Tell me about when you were diagnosed and how it has affected your writing.

Yeah, cancer. Kind of a big thing. I was diagnosed on March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day. Here I was getting ready to launch into trying my hand at promoting my new book and in the middle of negotiating a contract for a second book when the doctor dropped the bomb: You have colon cancer.

Funny thing is, I don’t remember ordering colon cancer. Not part of my plans at all.

As for how it’s affected my writing, immediately, it’s halted my writing. With the exception of daily journaling on my blog, I haven’t written a lick since being diagnosed. I love to write, it’s my passion, but this cancer thing trumps it. I took this diagnosis as a nudge from God that I need to set writing aside for a little while and just concentrate on the most important things: my relationship with Him and my relationship with my family. Sometimes it takes something like cancer to refocus you, to get you to evaluate your life and do a little re-prioritizing.

In the long run, I think the experience of traveling through this valley will only enhance my writing, give it more depth, more texture, more emotion and passion. I know firsthand what it’s like to traverse that Valley of the Shadow of Death, to question Why me?, to be scared of dying, not for dying’s sake but for my family’s sake, to live with a monster inside me that wants to kill me (hey, that gives me a great story idea), to be poked, prodded, scoped, and stuck, to live a life that revolves around the next test result or the next doctor’s appointment. I’ve been there now and I can incorporate those experiences into my stories, into the life of my characters. It’ll be interesting to see how my writing changes once I get back to it.

So did you always want to write, or did you stumble into it? How did you first decide to become a writer? 

My call to write was in no way gradual. It happened all at once and might as well have been God speaking directly to me. It began with a motorcycle accident that left my brother-in-law in a deep coma and a prognosis of death or, at best, persistent vegetative state. My wife, Jen, and I went to visit my sister and Darrell in the hospital and came away wrestling with emotions I couldn’t easily explain: anger, frustration, sorrow, confusion, you name it. When we got home I did the first thing that came to mind, I grabbed a pad of paper and a pen and started writing.

Now, it’s important to know at this point that I’ve always struggled with stuttering. Lots of thoughts and ideas swirled in my head but I rarely voiced them because talking was just so laborious. I often kept my emotions under lock and key because it was easier than trying to express myself in words. Well, when that pen hit paper I knew I was on to something, I felt a freedom I had not felt before. I could say what was on my mind and in my heart and say it with perfect fluency. I had found my voice! That was almost ten years ago and I haven’t stopped writing since. Oh, and by the way, Darrell pulled through and is doing just fine now.

Wow–my call to write wasn’t nearly as profound. My Dad is a writer, and honestly I didn’t want to be a writer, so I was more of a stumbler. However, I can certainly relate to the freedom writing provides because of my own difficulty in expressing my thoughts vocally. But more important than that–how wonderful that Darrell not only pulled through, but that he’s doing fine! That is a healing miracle, and I pray the same thing for you.

So tell me a little bit about The Hunted. Writers are always asked where they get their ideas, so that seems like a good place to start.

The idea for The Hunted came from the internet. I was surfing one day just looking for ideas or something to spark my imagination and get the wheel churning when I came across this story of a small town in Indiana that reported lion sightings back in the 1920’s. Several of the townsfolk said they saw an African lion in the fields surrounding the town. A couple cows were mauled and eaten. Then the sightings just stopped. No one knows where the lion came from or where it went. I thought it was a pretty neat idea and ran with it. Story born. Happy birthday!

One thing I know I struggle with as a writer is theme. What would you say the theme is for The Hunted?

Themes are something else, aren’t they? An author can write a story expecting to convey one message and then, when the book’s done, look back and find he’s actually conveyed several messages and none are the one he intended. And then someone can read the book and get something out of it totally different from what the author thought he conveyed.

So, here’s what I think the themes are, what I wanted the themes to be when I wrote the book (whether anyone actually finds these themes is another story entirely, and I’m okay with that, really I am, as long as they get something meaningful out of it). One theme is the idea of not putting God in a box, of letting Him be God, letting Him work in your life and do some miraculous things. I think too often we put a leash on God and tell Him what He’s allowed and not allowed to do. That’s not our place. God can do anything He wants to do. He’s the one in charge, remember?

Okay, enough of that. The second theme is the danger of a vengeful heart. Vengeance is a powerful thing; I think that’s why God said He’d take care of it. In the hands of mere mortals, it’s a deadly poison, able to consume a man and turn him into a monster. Revenge is not something we should try to harness. We have no business playing with that fire. In The Hunted we see the end result of a vengeful heart unbound.

Lastly, there’s the theme of forgiveness and acceptance and redemption. Beautiful things we experience from the heart our Heavenly Father and pass on to others.

Sounds like I’m going to have to buy this book! So what is it that draws you to write supernatural suspense?

Because I’m weird. No, not really . . . well, maybe. Plenty of people think I am weird after reading my stories. It was a natural gravitation for me. I grew up loving The Twilight Zone and The X-files and any kind of monster movie. I’ve always been intrigued by legends like Big Foot and the Loch Ness monster. The unexplained has always fascinated me. I honestly can’t see myself writing anything else.

Sounds like we have a lot in common there. Last question before I tell the readers how to find you and your books for themselves. Of all the characters in The Hunted, which one did you identify with most?

Boy, that’s a tough question. I think each of my characters have a bit of me in them; I’m a composite of each of their personalities. Yes, that means there’s even a little of me in the psychopath bent on revenge—and that really scares my wife. I think the character with whom I identify the most, though, is Joe Saunders, the protagonist. Joe is complex and real in that he struggles on a daily basis with his faith and how God works. He’s got God in a box and has set neat little boundaries and guidelines for what God can and can’t do and how He can and can’t work. And if I’m not careful I can fall into that same trap. When I put God in a box I miss out on witnessing those strange and mysterious ways He works. During his journey, Joe has to learn to let God loose and trust Him to take care of things in His way, not ours. That’s a lesson I need to review every day. Now, that’s not to say I identify with Joe in every way. He’s much braver than me. There’s no way you’d get me to go hunting a man-eater in a fog-blinded woods. I’m too much of a fraidy-cat.

Well, you may think you’re a “fraidy-cat,” but I’d say you’re doing a great job of battling your own “man-eater.” But then that’s were Philippians 4:13 comes in, doesn’t it? My prayers will be with you during your recovery. Thanks so much for the interview, Mike!

If you want to read the first chapter of The Hunted and sign up for Mike’s newsletter, you can do both at Mike’s website. Also, if you’re among the first twenty people to sign up for his newsletter, you will receive an autographed cover flat of The Hunted. But even if you don’t win that, for signing up you will receive his short story, The Last Hunt, written exclusively for his newsletter subscribers.

The Hunted by Mike Delosso is available at Amazon.com or Christianbook.com.

And last but not least, other blogs will be hosting Mike’s tour, and you can find a master list of all those blogs here.

It seems that whether I’m writing, working on a painting, or creating jewelry, there’s always a process of revision going on. Early in May I listed three pieces of turquoise and silver jewelry, two of which sold immediately. The other piece was a turquoise necklace with a donut pendant. I loved the piece as it was. It was simple but eye catching. But the more I got to thinking about it, the more I itched to do something truly unique with it. I had a bracelet that hadn’t sold, and I had just bought some sterling silver ivy charms, and the new vision began to form. So I unlisted the piece, cut the bracelet apart for parts, and revised the turquoise donut pendant with my new vision. I think my years of working in a flower shop came out in the new vision. Here are the before and after shots.

I wish I had the “before” picture. Oh my. I started this ring before Christmas, it wouldn’t cooperate with me, so I quickly became frustrated and put it in a drawer for “later.” This morning I was looking for something else and pulled the misshapen hunk of sterling silver and stones out of the drawer and decided to work on it. I figured it was a lost cause, so what did I have to lose, right? Well, I worked and I worked, and this is the result. I was really happy with the way it turned out.

And then there’s this piece:

The “eye” design with the iridescent shimmer and Celtic knot motif is something I did in polymer clay several months ago. I had planned to make a pendant and earrings at the time, but for whatever reason it just didn’t “suit” me. So once again I put it in a drawer, and then the other day I saw a pair of wire-wrapped earrings someone else had created, and the perfect idea sprang to life! I even named this piece. I call her “Sheherazade.”

So I guess as tempting as it is to throw our mistakes away, it’s usually a good idea to keep them. You just never know when the creative forces will click into place. I love it when that happens!